Installing Patches and Maintenance Packs

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Smart Update Quick Reference

This section guides you through the steps to complete three basic tasks and describes the icons and labels used in the graphical interface:

How to Download and Apply a Private Patch

This section provides a quick-reference aid that guides you through the steps of retrieving and applying a private patch that BEA Customer Support has provided for you.

To retrieve and apply a private patch, complete the following steps.

  1. Launch Smart Update:

    2. Windows:

    From the Start menu, choose Start > Programs > BEA Products > Smart Update.

    UNIX:

    1. Change to the BEA_HOME/utils/bsu directory.
    2. Enter the bsu.sh command.
  2. Log in to BEA Customer Support:


    3. When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.

  3. In the Smart Update main window, in the panel labeled Target Installation, select the BEA product installation for which you are downloading a private patch.


    4. Login Dialog Box

  4. Select the Get Patches tab.


    5. Target Installation panel in which you select a BEA product installation

  5. Choose Patches > Retrieve Private..., enter the patch identifier and passcode, and click Download.


    6. Get Patches tab

  6. When prompted whether to check the patch for conflicts before download, click No, continue with the download and check for conflicts later, and click OK.
  7. Select the Manage Patches tab.


    8. Downloading a private patch

  8. In the Downloaded Patches panel, click Apply next to the listing of the private patch you downloaded.


    9. Select the Manage Patches tab

    When you apply a patch, the patch is automatically validated against the other patches that have been applied to the target installation. If no conflicts are detected, Smart Update displays the following dialog box. Click OK.


    Apply button in Downloaded Patches panel

How to Generate a Maintenance Snapshot

Smart Update provides a mechanism for capturing information about your BEA product installation that you can send to BEA Customer Support when reporting a problem. This information is called a maintenance snapshot. This section guides you through the steps of creating a maintenance snapshot.

To generate a maintenance snapshot, complete the following steps.

  1. Launch Smart Update:

    2. Windows:

    From the Start menu, choose Start > Programs > BEA Products > Smart Update.

    UNIX:

    1. Change to the BEA_HOME/utils/bsu directory.
    2. Enter the bsu.sh command.
      3. Note: You do not need to log in to BEA Customer Support to generate a maintenance snapshot.
  2. In the Smart Update main window, in the panel labeled Target Installation, select the BEA product installation with which you are reporting a problem.


    3. Message box indicating no patch download conflicts are detected

  3. Select a patch profile in the Manage Patches tab.


    4. Target Installation panel in which you select a BEA product installation

  4. Choose Patches > Patch Profiles... > Save Snapshot....
  5. In the Save Snapshot dialog box, enter a file name for the maintenance snapshot, and click OK.

    6. The maintenance snapshot is a simple ASCII text file.

  6. Send the maintenance snapshot file to BEA Customer Support. Use of E-mail is preferred. But you may print the file and send it via postal mail, if appropriate.

How to Create a Custom Patch Profile

If you want to limit the scope of a class or library path patch to a specific domain or server, you need to:

  1. Create a custom patch profile, and apply the patch to it.
  2. Modify the start script for the corresponding domain or server to add a reference to the custom patch profile.

This section provides a quick-reference aid that shows how to complete these steps, and uses the example of a test engineer who has downloaded a patch and plans to test the patch in a QA domain before incorporating the patch into a production domain.

To create a custom patch profile and point a domain or server at the patches applied to the profile, complete the following steps:

  1. Start Smart Update, log in to BEA Customer Support, and select the BEA product in the Target Installation panel.
  2. Download the patch from BEA Customer Support into the designated patch download directory.
  3. Create a custom patch profile to which the patch is to be applied, using the following steps:
    1. Choose Patches > Patch Profiles > New.


      2. Menu option for creating a maintenance snapshot

    2. Assign a name for the custom patch profile, and specify the initial set of patches you want in the custom patch profile by cloning the contents of another existing patch profile that exists for the target installation.

      3. Example: The test engineer wants to run the QA domain at the same patch maintenance level as the production system, but with the addition of the patch downloaded in step 2. So the engineer creates the custom patch profile, QADomainProfile, and clones the contents of the default patch profile to it. Later she will apply the downloaded patch to this custom patch profile.


      Menu option for creating a new patch profile

      Note that any existing installation-wide patches that have already been applied to the target installation are included in the custom patch profile by default.

      After you click Create, the custom patch profile is displayed in a tab adjacent to the tab for the default patch profile.


      In the dialog box for creating a custom patch profile, specify the patch profile name, the initial contents of the profile, and then click Create.

  4. Apply patches to, or remove patches from, the custom patch profile, as appropriate.

    5. Example: The test engineer now applies the patch that was downloaded in step 2 to the QADomainProfile custom patch profile.

  5. Before running the Start Script Editor, make backup copies of any scripts you plan to modify.
    6. Note: Start Script Editor is not applicable for BEA’s OSGi-based products such as WebLogic Event Server 2.0 and AquaLogic Enterprise Repository 3.0.
  6. Run the Start Script Editor so you can modify the appropriate start script so that it references patches in the custom patch profile.


    7. Tab that is created for the custom patch profile

  7. In the Start Script Editor dialog box, choose the custom patch profile you created, the product you wish for which you wish to edit the script, and then click Open to open a start script.


    8. Menu option for running the Start Script Editor

  8. Open the appropriate start script so that the domain, cluster, or server can run with the patches in the custom patch profile. In the following table, domain_home represents the path to the domain’s root directory.

    9. To point the following at patches applied to the custom patch profile . . .
    Open the following script . . .
    Domain
    Windows:
    domain_home\bin\setDomainEnv.cmd
    UNIX:
    domain_home/bin/setDomainEnv.sh
    All WebLogic Server instances in the domain
    Windows:
    domain_home\bin\startWebLogic.cmd
    UNIX:
    domain_home/bin/startWebLogic.sh
    All Managed Servers
    Windows:
    domain_home\bin\startManagedWebLogic.cmd
    UNIX:
    domain_home/bin/startManagedWebLogic.sh
    One server instance
    Windows:
    domain_home\bin\startServerName.cmd
    UNIX:
    domain_home/bin/startServerName.sh

    Example: Because the test engineer needs to point the QA domain to the custom patch profile, the engineer opens the setDomainEnv.cmd script, which sets the environment for all servers in that domain only. Unless you need to limit the scope of a patch to a specific server instance, we generally recommend that you choose the setDomainEnv for pointing to custom patch profiles.

  9. In the appropriate start script, create the environment variables that reference the classes, extension directories, or library path patches in the custom patch profile to which you want the script to point.

    10. Patch classpath and other environment variables are set for each product individually. You must set the appropriate variables for each product similar to the variables set in wlserver_home\common\bin\setPatchEnv.cmd (Windows) or wlserver_home/common/bin/setPatchEnv.sh (UNIX). These environment variables are listed in the following table.

    To reference the following patch . . .
    Define the following environment variable so it points to the patches in the custom patch profile . . .
    Patch JAR containing classes to be interested into the WebLogic system classpath
    Environment variables to define:
    PATCH_CLASSPATH
    Example:
    set WLS_PATCH_CLASSPATH=
    %    BEA_HOME%\patch_wls1030\profiles\NewProfile
    \sys_manifest_classpath\weblogic_patch.jar
    if "%PATCH_CLASSPATH%" == ""
    set PATCH_CLASSPATH=%WLS_PATCH_CLASSPATH%;%WLW_PATCH_CLASSPATH%;%WLP_PATCH_CLASSPATH%
    Patch JAR containing classes to be inserted into the classpath of an application deployed on WebLogic Server
    Environment variable to define:
    WEBLOGIC_EXTENSION_DIRS
    Example:
    set WEBLOGIC_EXTENSION_DIRS=
    %    BEA_HOME%\patch_wls1030\profiles\NewProfile
    \sysext_manifest_classpath
    Native file to be inserted into the system library path (UNIX)
    Environment variable to define:
    PATCH_LIBPATH
    Example:
    PATCH_LIBPATH="${BEA_HOME}/patch_wls1030/profiles
    /NewProfile/native"
    Native file to be inserted into the system library path (Windows)
    Environment variable to define:
    PATCH_PATH
    Example:
    set PATCH_PATH=
    %    BEA_HOME%\patch_wls1030\profiles\default\native

    The figure example shows the snippet used to change the setDomainEnv.cmd script.


    In the Start Script Editor, choose the custom patch profile to which the script points, then click Open to open a start script.

  10. Make sure that any patch path variables you add to a start script precedes an invocation to one of the other environment scripts. For example, if you add a patch path variable definition to the setDomainEnv script, make sure it is placed before the invocation to the commEnv script.

    11. If you use custom scripts in your environment that do not invoke the WL_HOME\common\bin\commEnv script, or any of the other default scripts produced by the Configuration Wizard, you also need to modify the statements in your scripts that set the class and library paths for your environment so that the environment variables you have defined are properly inserted into those statements.

    For example, to set the WebLogic system classpath so that patch JARs in a custom patch profile supersede same-named classes appearing later in the classpath, add the PATCH_CLASSPATH variable as follows, shown in bold:

    set WEBLOGIC_CLASSPATH=%PATCH_CLASSPATH%;%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar;
    %    WL_HOME%\server\lib\weblogic_sp.jar;%WL_HOME%\server\lib\weblogic.jar;%WL_HOME%\server\lib\webservices.jar

  11. Click Save.

    12. For the patch to go into effect, each server instance that uses the patch must be restarted.

  12. If you subsequently decide to change the scope of a patch so that a different domain or server uses the patch, or so that all servers and domains that run on an installation use the patch, update the appropriate patch profile.

    13. Example: When the test engineer approves the patch that has been tested in the QA domain, the patch can then be promoted for use in the production domains. To promote the patch, the test engineer does the following:

    1. Runs Smart Update, and selects the product installation used by the production domain.
    2. In the Manage Patches tab, selects the default patch profile, and applies the patch.
    3. Restarts the servers in the production domain.

Smart Update GUI Glossary

Table A-1 provides a key to the graphical symbols and labels used throughout the Smart Update graphical interface.

Table A-1 Smart Update Graphical Interface 
Screen or Panel
Symbol
Description
Target Installation

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Represents a BEA Home directory, which may contain multiple BEA products. When you create a maintenance snapshot, you must select the appropriate BEA Home directory.
Note that the Smart Update graphical interface can display only those BEA Home directories for products that were installed by the current machine. BEA Home directories on remote-mounted disks are visible only if installed from the current machine.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Represents a BEA product home directory. For example, WebLogic Server, or AquaLogic Service Bus.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Represents a specific installation of a BEA product, called the target installation. For example, WebLogic Server Release 9.1.
A specific installation must be selected to do the following:
  • View or download a publicly available patch or patch set
  • Apply or remove a patch or patch set
  • Create or remove a custom patch profile
Get Patches tab

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Enables you to view publicly available patches and patch sets for the selected target installation. Also allows you to view contents of current patch download directory.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Indicates an individual patch. Click this icon to get detailed information about the corresponding patch.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Indicates a patch set, which comprises multiple patches. Click this icon to get detailed information about the constituent patches.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
When checked, enables corresponding publicly available patch or patch set to be downloaded. You may make multiple selections simultaneously. To begin the download, click Download Selected.
Downloaded Patches panel

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Displays contents of patch download directory. When Get Patches tab is selected, contents of download directory for selected target installation is displayed. When Manage Patches tab is selected, only patches not yet applied to a given profile are displayed.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
When green arrow is clicked, applies corresponding patch or patch set to current patch profile. (Patches and patch sets can be applied only when the Manage Patches tab is selected.)
Manage Patches tab

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Displays contents of each patch profile, which is the set of patches applied to the currently selected target installation. You apply and remove patches and patch sets from the Manage Patches tab.

Note: To apply a patch or patch set and add it to the current profile, click Apply next to that patch or patch set in the Downloaded Patches panel.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Displays the set of patches and patch sets scoped to the entire installation in a given BEA Home directory, which corresponds to the currently selected target installation.
If you have created additional patch profiles, called custom patch profiles, each has its own tab adjacent to the Default Profile tab.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
When the red arrow is clicked, the corresponding patch or patch set is removed from the target installation and from the profile. (Removed patches or patch sets are re-listed in the Downloaded Patches panel when the patch profile contents are displayed from the Manage Patches tab.)
Patch Application Validation dialog box

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
Displays conflicts that have occurred when applying a patch or patch set, identifying the patches that conflict with the one, or ones, being applied. The conflict conditions that can occur when applying a patch or patch set are described below.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
The selected patch cannot be applied until one or more other patches are first applied. To resolve this conflict:
  1. Note the identifiers of the prerequisite patches.
  2. Click Cancel, download and apply the prerequisite patches, then apply the selected patch
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
The selected patch requires that you first remove one or more other patches that have already been applied. To resolve this conflict:
  1. Note the identifiers of the patches that must be removed.
  2. Click Cancel and remove the identified patches.
  3. Download and apply the selected patch.
  4. Re-apply the patches removed in step 2.
 

When modifying the setDomainEnv script, you can replace the placeholder for a patch path variable with the snippet provided below.
The selected patch cannot co-exist with one or more other patches that have already been applied To resolve this conflict, you must choose which patch you want applied to the target installation.


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